


Butterfly Bandage

by writewritewrite



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 09:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17506175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writewritewrite/pseuds/writewritewrite
Summary: Will split his life into two distinct time periods: Will Before and Will After.





	Butterfly Bandage

**Author's Note:**

> There are no archive warnings for this, but I’d like to leave a few. There’s mention of being hit by a car, a concussion, blood, and a seizure. Please take care of yourselves.

_I’m a loose bolt of a complete machine_  
_What a match, I’m half doomed_  
_And you’re semisweet_

•••••

Will split his life into two distinct time periods: Will Before and Will After.

Will Before was a fun guy. Will Before laughed a lot. Will Before was close with his team and his friends. Will Before was really optimistic about his future, even if his childhood hadn’t been fantastic. Will Before was the light for his siblings. Will Before was hopeful. Will Before felt like he had a lot to live for.

Then it happened.

Will couldn’t remember a lot of the incident, what he knew mostly what he’d been told. He’d been walking around with some buddies from the team really late during Spring Break. They’d just ditched some crap party they’d been to, all loose from alcohol. The party was close to the beach and everything smelled salty. Will felt pretty good, a little invincible, and a little scared of how his mother was going to reprimand him when he got home. He was busy laughing and getting pushed around and pushing his buddies around and being in his own head to see the car. He didn’t even notice that he’s in the street.

He had a moderate to severe concussion. He couldn’t remember much between salty air and hospital bed. His mother was pissed. His dad didn’t say much (as usual). When he went home he only talked to Liv (and Nate when he was around). He had awful migraines daily. He threw up constantly for that first week. He was angry all the time. His short term memory felt like a bucket with a hole in it. He had a seizure a month after it. He was on four different medications. Then they dropped to two. He started stabilizing by July. He got back on the ice. Not hockey, but the ice. Hockey started in October, just like always. Sure, he was benched most of his junior year, but at least he was still on the team. He had a few more seizures. His meds changed twice until they hit the right combo. By April he played more.

But now Will was Will After. He wasn’t the same. Will After was meaner. Will After played hard even if it was risky. Will After got cut off from most of his buddies on the team. Will After started fights if anyone pissed him off. Will After was untouchable.

He only had one seizure his senior year. Thankfully not on the ice.

He was a little shocked and very relieved that Samwell still wanted him even though he’s epileptic. When he talked to the coaches about it he was prepared to get turned away. But they asked about how controlled his seizures were and said it was fine.

He told no one at Samwell that he had epilepsy except for the people who needed to know. It had made high school lonely and he wanted to at least feel like he belonged. Of course, this team didn’t know Will Before, the golden boy. They only knew Will After. That helped too. He took his medication and didn’t talk about it. His migraines were less than they used to be and came off as normal. He had friends. It was good.

And really, by now, Will should’ve known that it would all go to shit.

•••••

Nursey kissed Will at a kegster. They were both tipsy. They didn’t talk about it. And then Will kissed Nursey outside his dorm room. They were both completely sober. They still didn’t talk about it. Will didn’t know what was happening and he didn’t ask. But he wanted to keep kissing Nursey if that was an option.

•••••

Finals were stupid. At least, they were stupid if they were gen eds that Will wasn’t good at. Why did he have to take so many social science credits as a CompSci major? At least he took this Econ class with both Chowder and Nursey so he wasn’t alone in the misery.

The three of them were at the Haus studying for the final. Chowder chewed on a sweatshirt string as he scribbled in his notebook. Nursey kicked Will’s leg under the table. Will gave him pointed scowls. He and Nursey already had a weird two weeks and this wasn’t helping his stress.

He felt a migraine coming on, but he didn’t want to get the medication from his bag. Also Nursey and Chowder hadn’t actually seen the medication before, and that would probably freak them out. They probably assumed he took Excedrin like normal people. So he decided to soldier on. He kept thinking about medication as he was trying to interpret PPC graphs. Did he take his anti-seizure meds this morning? Actually, had he taken them in the last few days? He’s been freaking out over this final and hockey, maybe he’d forgotten. It wasn’t the first time. But if it’d been like more than two days that wasn’t good either—

“Hey, earth to Dex,” Chowder said, snapping Will out of his head. He looked over and Chowder had his eyebrows raised. “You okay bro?”

Will blinked. “Yeah, fine.” Chowder side-eyed Nursey. Nursey raised an eyebrow. Will kicked him under the table. “I’m fine, C, promise.”

Chowder shrugged and the three of them jumped back into the review. Will shook the cobwebs from his head and tried to focus. He’d set a reminder to take his meds tomorrow later. He didn’t wanna risk taking an extra dose.

Nursey kicked Will under the table again. Will stuck his tongue out at him and he smiled victoriously in response.

•••••

Later that night, Will somehow ended up in Nursey’s room. His roommate had dropped out three weeks ago and he wasn’t getting a new one. Will wasn’t sure what they were going to do originally because now he was kissing Nursey. Scratch that, he and Nursey were making out. Will’s hands roamed up the back of Nursey shirt. Nursey pulled away from him and pulled the shirt off. He froze with it in his hands.

“You wanna do this, Poindexter?”

Will swallowed. “Yeah.”

Nursey grinned and tossed the shirt aside, leaning back into him.

•••••

Will didn’t remember falling asleep in Nursey’s room. But this was definitely Nursey’s room. The window was in the wrong place and the pillowcase smelled like Old Spice not Pert and, most importantly, Nursey was curled around him. Will felt himself smile. When did he start feeling like this?

He tapped on Nursey’s shoulder. “Hey, Nursey, time to get up.”

Nursey let out a tiny “ehhhh” and didn’t move. Will’s eyes narrowed. He tapped on Nursey’s shoulder again.

“You’re literally drooling on me and I need to pee so if you’d please.”

Nursey’s face scrunched up and smoothed out again, eyes slowly opening. He sighed. “Hey Dex.”

“Hi.” Nursey blinked at him.

“Oh, right, sorry,” he said as he rolled off the bed. Somehow, probably by the grace of God, he didn’t fall on his face. He managed to be standing up. Will raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything as he threw clothes on and left.

When he came back, Nursey was dressed and sitting on his bed. “I guess we’re late for team breakfast.” He tossed Will a shoe.

“Shit, on game day?” Nursey nodded, tossing the other shoe. “We’re fucked.”

“We’ll probably just lose, it’ll be fine Poindexter. It’s not even like this game matters that much.”

“Fair. Let’s just go before someone kills us.” Nursey caught Will’s wrist before he could fully turn towards the door. Will raised an eyebrow.

“We’re going to talk about this, yes?”

Will nodded. “Of course. Later, though, when we’re not late for _team fucking breakfast_.”

Nursey stood, throwing his hands up. “All right, all right, let’s go then.”

As the walked over to the dining hall, Will checked his phone. There was a reminder for seizure meds. He bit his lip and swiped it away. It’d be okay, right? Nothing had happened yet. Besides, he couldn’t chance Nursey finding out, not when they were like this.

It’d be okay, he decided. He can survive another few hours without it.

•••••

The stupidest part of it was Will wasn’t even doing anything yet. He was out, moving over to be more useful. He’d had his eye on the second line right winger the whole game. He was an impulsive player and had his stick in everything. If Will could take him out for a second, that could give them a nice turnover. So Will watched and waited. When his chance came up, he took it. He was skating over to nail this guy, but suddenly everything stopped.

He forgot everything else as his vision faded out.

•••••

“What the fuck kind of spasm was that?” Someone asked, someone Will couldn’t identify.

“Fuck off, that’s my fucking teammate,” someone else said, someone that sounded like Wicks but he wasn’t so sure.

“Both of you get back,” someone said that sounded strongly like Sports Med Grad Student Ralph. “Poindexter? Can you hear me?”

Will tried to speak but his mouth didn’t work right and he groaned instead, peeling his eyes open. Everything so bright and the faces around him swam. He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes. SMGS Ralph was next to him, doing something with his arm, which was on fire. There was some whispering that was just about lost in the white noise of the rink. Oh god, he was in the rink. He was on his back on the ice.

“Okay, Poindexter, you’re gonna be alright. You got a pretty nasty cut on your arm from a skate and we need to stitch you up.” Will looked down towards his arm and saw a bunch of red. That seemed plausible. “We gotta get you up, okay?”

“‘Kay,” he managed to get out. SMGS Ralph beamed.

“Great, okay. I’ll hold onto your arm and we’ll get you up.” The whole thing was a bit of a production, but Will was standing and being taken off the ice in the end. On his way out, he caught Nursey’s eyes, which were wide with terror. Something settled in Will’s stomach that he didn’t like.

He felt his brain as he got stitched up in the trainer's room. He hadn’t felt his brain in a long time, probably not since his last big seizure. It hurt a lot too. He really wanted to sleep.

“How long’d it last?” He asked SMGS Ralph, who was tying off the thread.

“Your seizure? Two minutes and some change.” Will nodded.

“How’d I get sliced?” SMGS Ralph probably had told him that already but he was prone to forgetting things after seizures.

“You crashed into the guy I’m guessing you meant to check on you way down. His skate caught your arm.” He smoothed a bandage over the stitches. “You’re gonna be off the ice until these come out. I don’t need you to burst ‘em.” He rolled away to throw his gloves out. “I know I’m not your doctor or anything, but can I ask you a question about this anyways?”

Will shrugged. “I guess.”

“Did you take your medication this morning?”

He blinked, considering his options. Was it really worth lying to SMGS Ralph? “Honestly? I don’t think I’ve taken it in a week. I got so caught up in finals and this last game that I kept forgetting.”

Murray, who had been in the doorway supervising, raised his eyebrows. Will felt a bit of shame spread in his chest.

“Poindexter—”

“I know, I gotta take the meds.”

“As long as you know.” SMGS Ralph grabbed his tray and placed it on the counter. “Now get out of here, I don’t wanna see your ugly mug anymore.” Will’s lips tugged at smile as he stood up to head to the locker room. Murray followed him out.

“Poindexter,” he said quietly, like he was concerned SMGS Ralph would hear him, “are you okay?”

Will stopped walking and raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

Murray had stopped walking as well. “I have a responsibility to this team to make sure all of you are in shape to play. And I just want to make sure that the only thing stopping you is your arm. I don’t know much about seizures and the affects.”

Murray’s expression held a note of concern. Will nodded. “I’m fine, sir. I’ve got a wicked migraine and I could use some sleep, but nothing’s long lasting here.”

“Alright.” Murray looked at the way to the ice. “Are you staying the rest of the game?”

Will considered this for a moment. He remembered Nursey’s face and forced his body not to shudder. “I-I think I’d rather just rest up. I don’t want to push it.”

Murray nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. “Of course. In case I miss you before you leave, you have a good holiday break.”

“You too, sir.”

“Don’t forget the medication. I can’t have one of my best D men blacking out on the ice, okay?”

“Okay.” Murray headed back towards the ice, leaving Will alone in the locker room. He sighed, grabbing his ripped, bloody jersey and leaving it on the washing machine. He wasn’t even sure if it was salvageable, but it didn’t hurt to leave it. He shouldered his bag and left Faber.

•••••

Will woke up and he thought it was the middle of the night, but his roommate was gone still. He checked his phone. It was only 9:30. He also had four messages waiting for him.

**Chowder - 8:47**  
Hey I’m sure you don’t feel up to it but we’re all hanging out at the Haus right now

**Chowder - 8:47pm**  
We’re getting pizza and there’s pie

**Chowder - 8:48pm**  
We’re worried dude you just left

**Chowder - 8:48pm**  
Please tell me you’re okay

Will felt terrible. Chowder probably thought he was ignoring him.

**Dex - 9:32pm**  
hi

**Dex - 9:32pm**  
sorry i took so long to respond i passed out hardcore

**Dex - 9:32pm**  
are you guys still hanging out

Will pushed himself up, running a hand through his hair and over his stitches. The bandage came off while he was asleep. It was stuck to his pillow. He threw it out, unsure if he should really put that back on. His phone buzzed.

**Chowder - 9:34pm**  
It’s okay

**Chowder - 9:34pm**  
We’re still here

Will breathed a sigh of relief.

**Dex - 9:35pm**  
i’ll be there soon

•••••

The Haus was warm and inviting compared to the doom and gloom of winter. It was supposed to snow soon. Will had called Liv on the way from Faber to his dorm and told her about what happened. He felt a lot better by the time he was in the Haus.

He barely made it two steps into the living room before he was engulfed in a Chowder hug.

“Jesus, C, it’s not like I died,” he said. Chowder let go of him.

“I know, I just...it was scary, okay? And then you weren’t there when it was over.” Chowder was frowning and Will felt like the biggest asshole in existence.

“I’m so sorry about all of it. I can explain.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Chowder assured.

“I think you should.” Nursey was slumped on the couch. Will’s heart sank at the sound of his voice and the sight of him. He wasn’t terrified like earlier, but there was something else there. Something stormy.

“Nursey, please don’t,” Chowder said like he’d been saying it all evening.

“Don’t what?”

“Nurse, don’t be a dick,” Holster said as he clambered down the stairs. He and Ransom took the rest of the couch. “How you feeling Dex?”

Will shrugged. “Been better.”

“I bet. You went down pretty hard,” Bitty piped up from the corner. Will hadn’t noticed him until now. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet, his eyes shifting between Nursey and Will. An uncomfortable silence fell over the six of them.

“Did we lose?” Will finally asked. Holster nodded.

“1-5.” Will winced. “I know. How long you out for?”

“SMGS Ralph said until my stitches come out. I’ll probably be back for the first game after break.” The uncomfortable silence came back. Will picked at the edge of the new bandage on his stitches. “I think you guys deserve to know why today happened.”

“You don’t have to do that, Dex,” Bitty said. “Hall and Murray told us...a little bit. And you don’t seem comfortable with this.”

“We’ll still have your back, man,” Ransom added. “It’s personal shit, we don’t need to know it unless you truly want us too.”

Will looked at his hands, like he didn’t know what to do. Telling them was the right thing, but they were giving him an out and he wanted to take it so bad. But it was time, right? A year and a half and one seizure later felt like time. “What did Hall and Murray say?”

“That you had a seizure and it wasn’t something too worrisome. And that you’d be out for a few games,” Nursey said, not looking at Will. Everyone in the room had turned their attention toward him, like they were shocked he spoke. He flicked his eyes over to Will. “But there’s more than that, isn’t there?”

“I have epilepsy,” Will said softly. “I got hit by a car my sophomore year of high school and had a wicked concussion that caused it.”

No one said anything. Chowder put a hand on Will’s shoulder. Will stared at Nursey. Nursey stared back.

“When were you going to tell us?” Nursey’s voice was soft too, like he didn’t want to disturb the room. But the same storminess in his face was behind his voice.

“Nursey—” Bitty started to say, but Nursey interrupted him.

“When?”

Will bit his lip. “If it came up. Maybe never.”

“What, do you not trust us?”

“No, that’s not—”

“Then what? Why not tell us?”

Nursey’s voice had risen. Will felt the burn of irritation in his palms. “Why do you care so much? You know now.”

“But what if it hadn’t been on the ice, with people who knew what was happening? What if it had been a normal day? What if something had happened to you?”

“I-I—Nursey, that’s not—” Will stuttered. Nursey stood up.

“You can’t just not let us in, Dex, it doesn’t fucking work like that. This shit is important and you didn’t even tell us. Do we even _matter_ to you?” Nursey was half shouting at this point. Will’s heart dropped. Everyone else was really quiet. Bitty opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but he must’ve thought better of it. Nursey was still looking at Will. “Well? Do we?”

Will just stared. He couldn’t form words. His eyes were hot and wet, but he wasn’t going to cry over this, in front of them. Quietly, Holster stood up and put a hand on Nursey’s shoulder. “Hey, go cool off, okay?”

Nursey finally looked away from Will, but took off for the stairs. Will followed him with his eyes the whole way. When his footsteps faded out, Will flopped onto the empty spot on the couch with his head in his hands. He let out a long, slow breath, the tears that had pooled in his eyes leaking onto his hands. But he wasn’t crying, not really.

“Dex?” Will lifted his head and looked at Chowder.

“I’m fine, C. It’s fine.”

“It’s not and you know that,” Bitty said. “None of that was okay.”

Will shook his head. “He’s got a right to be pissed.” He sighed and looked towards the stairs again. “I should go talk to him.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Chowder sounded really concerned. Will shook his head.

“Not really, but what else can I do? Let him stay pissed? That’s never ended well.” Bitty and Chowder shared a look.

Holster shrugged. “Give him five minutes, and yourself.”

Will nodded and sat back into the couch. Maybe in retrospect it was a stupid thing to not tell them. Nursey’s words rang in his head. _Do we even matter to you?_ His irritation had turned to shame and he felt awful. They meant everything to him, especially Nursey. Friends that felt like family. Someone who was really into him. Somewhere he _fit_ , where people didn’t give him weird looks or brush him off like his epilepsy and migraines were contagious. And he fucked it all up. He had to say something.

“I’m gonna go talk to him,” he said, getting up and heading for the stairs before anyone could argue.

He stopped in front of Chowder’s room. Nursey was sprawled out on the floor. “Hey.”

Nursey looked over at him. “Hi.” His voice was hoarse.

“Can I come in?” Nursey shrugged. Will stepped into the room and laid down next to him. “I’m really sorry about not telling you about it. That wasn’t fair of me.”

“I shouldn’t have snapped at you. That wasn’t fair of me either. It’s just that I don’t get to be worried about you like this,” Nursey said, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m not your boyfriend. Fuck, I’m not even your friend.” Will didn’t say anything. He’d found that Nursey was really a talk-it-out person. “I was scared out of my fucking mind on the ice today. I didn’t know what was happening and I couldn’t get over there. And the blood, oh my god. You have no idea how much your arm was bleeding. And no one would let me go anywhere or do anything. And it makes sense because I’m just your D Partner. I don’t have any right to feel like this. And I feel so fucking _bad_ about it.”

Will hooked his hand into Nursey’s elbow, pulling his arm from his chest and taking his hand. Nursey laced their fingers together. “You have every right to feel like that, Nursey. I’ve heard it’s pretty scary to see. And, if it was you, I’d be worried too. Fuck, I’d be terrified.” He sighed. “You asked me earlier if you mattered to me, and you do. You matter so much to me. I know I don’t act like it, but you do. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to lose you.”

Nursey’s grip on Will’s hand tightened. “What?”

“Well, y’know.” He waved his free hand in the air. “No one wants to be with the broken kid.”

Nursey sat up, twisting to look down at him. “Dex, you’re not broken. Not in the slightest.”

“My brain is literally broken. I take three medications to try stop seizures and migraines. My short term memory isn’t great. I don’t—I couldn’t lose you. I didn’t want you to think less of me. But now that you know—”

Nursey leaned down and kissed the words out of Will. It was soft and full of apologies and something he couldn’t name. When Nursey broke it off, his free hand came up to stroke Will’s cheek.

“You’re not losing me, Dex. I don’t know who told you you were broken or that you’re less, but I don’t think that. And I’m not going to stop this because of it.”

Will’s heart fluttered in his chest. This sounded like a promise. He wasn’t so sure it was real though. “Are you sure you want this?”

Nursey nodded. “I want this.”

“Okay.” Then he smiled and Will couldn’t help but smile too. He pushed himself up and pressed his lips to Nursey’s. He wasn’t as smooth as Nursey, but he put all his emotions into it and it felt like it was over all too soon. “We should go back downstairs.”

“‘Mm,” Nursey hummed in agreement. “They probably think you smothered me with a pillow.”

“Probably.”

Nursey kissed him one more time. Then he pushed himself up, pulling Will up with him. They untangled their fingers, but Nursey’s hand found the small of Will’s back not long after. They tumbled down the stairs. Chowder was waiting for them at the bottom.

“So?”

“We’re good, Chowder,” Will said. “We’re really good.”


End file.
